question for the GURPS experts

[KenM]

I used to play gurps alot. 500 points is the default for super campiagns. But it also depends on the GM and how powerful he makes the supers in the world, ect.

 

[Staffan]

No, I beg to differ. The mechanics of the game (at least my 2nd Ed copy) do not provide for some levels of power. The stats besides strength do not give any advantage beyond 20 (well actually, health will, so I am not completely correct).

Actually, stats above 20 do give benefits. They just don't give skill defaults (using skills without training). So, let's say Spider-Man has DX 25 and an olympic gymnast has DX 20. If neither one has any training in, say, skiing (assuming it's a Physical/Average skill with a default of DX-5), they will both roll against a default value of 15. However, if they both train for a while - enough to represent 1 character point - they will get a skill of DX-1. That's 19 for the olympic gymnast and 24 for Spidey. Stats at higher levels than 20 also matter for non-skill issues, such as speed.

Lifting capacity is on a linear scale, which makes providing for the really strong folk quite difficult.

Again, wrong. Lifting is on a quadratic scale, when you include the "Extra effort" rules (roll vs. ST with a penalty of -1 per 10% over your normal max lift - meaning that a super-strong character can lift (ST*25*(1+(ST-16)/10) lbs on a roll of 16 or less on 3d6. At higher levels of ST, this works out to needing a ST equal to the square root of (max lift/2.5).

The actual formula is ST = 3+SQRT(9+Max_Lift/2.5), but since Max_Lift is going to be in the thousands it kind of overshadows the other numbers.

One could, in theory make Spider Man as someone said. However, it would be far more than 500 points. His strength alone would have to be 666 (marvel universe handbook always placed him at lifting 10 tons)which will cost 493 by itself.

Using the above formula, ST 90 works out fine. IIRC, that's about 250 points.

The real problem with making Spider-Man in GURPS is his webs. Binding attacks are hideously expensive compared to super-Strength, and Spidey's webs are supposed to be able to hold someone with a strength equal to the Thing or thereabouts. In the old Marvel RPG, the Thing could lift 75 tons which translates to GURPS ST 250. I think binding attacks cost 6/level, so to have a fair chance of holding the Thing Spidey would have to spend 1500 points.